May Day: Immigration marches across Washington

Window-breaking anarchists have monopolized media coverage of May Day in Western Washington over recent years, but the biggest number of people taking to streets across the Evergreen State will be marching to get legal access to the American Dream.

OneAmerica, a group committed to immigration reform, is fielding demonstrations in Seattle as well as Mt. Vernon, Yakima, Walla Walla, Wenatchee, Vancouver and Spokane. “This is actually the first time we will be marching for immigration reform in the streets of Spokane,” said Lucia Vasquez, an organizer of the Spokane march.

And, for the first time, immigration advocates have a bill in Congress, the immigration legislation introduced last week by a bipartisan Senate group known as the “Gang of Eight.” “Our community sees this as a huge milestone: Some of the marches are stopping by members of our congressional delegation,” said Charlie McAteer of One America.

The Vancouver march will start at the office of Republican Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, touted by GOP House strategists for her Hispanic ancestry when she first ran for Congress in 2010. “She has made no commitment one way or the other to immigration reform: We are trying to nudge her to make a decision,” said Rick Covington, an organizer of the Vancouver march.

In Walla Walla and Spokane, marchers will have their eye on Rep. Cathy McMorris-Rodgers, R-Wash., the Eastern Washington congresswoman who serves in the House Republican leadership. Javier Saucedo, an organizer of the Walla Walla march, noted that McMorris-Rodgers voted against the Dream Act, a path to citizenship for young people who came to the U.S. at an early age and are now studying in college or serving in the military. “We are giving people Cathy McMorris-Rdogers’ phone (number) so they can call her: We are going to have a chance soon (to pass immigration reform),” said Saucedo.

Vasquez, in Spokane, added: “We have tried contacting her office. We haven’t had much luck.”

In addition to educating members of Congress, the demonstrations aim to build support for a path to citizenship for undocumented residents of the United States — “A clear path to citizenship is vital,” said McAteer — and to pressure the Obama administration to stop deportations that separate family members.

The Seattle march will convene at St. Mary’s Catholic Church, 611 20th S., at 1 p.m., listen to speeches for about two hours, and then march to the Federal Building in downtown Seattle.

The marches also aim to build support for the Washington Dream Act, passed by the state House of Representatives but blocked from a vote in the Washington State Senate. It would make state need grant money available to undocumented students who have lived in Washington since they were very young, and seeking a college education, and want career in what is for many the only country they have ever know. A majority of State Senators back the act. But State Sen. Barbara Bailey, R-Oak Harbor, chair of the Senate Higher Education Committee, will not allow a vote on it.